Research on a recently discovered HIV strain shows it holds an array of disturbing traits that help it quickly progress to full-blown AIDS (news - web sites) while resisting drug treatments, doctors said Thursday at the leading meeting on AIDS science. The variant, discovered in a New York City patient, may have raced from infection to full-blown AIDS in as little as four months, doctors said at the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference. Typical strains can take 10 years to progress to full-blown AIDS. Many new infections are resistant to treatment with common HIV drugs, and a small number of HIV variants have quickly progressed to the disease. But the New York patient’s doctors said the case combines both characteristics in a worrisome way.
